Skype and Regions Bank Are the Top US Consumer Brand Performance Leaders in Activating Influencer Conversations

Whole Foods is the Only Top 10 Brand for Connecting with Everyday Influencers Both Online and Offline

NEW YORK, NY (February 27, 2019) – Everyday influencers are the one in 10 consumers with large social networks who frequently make product and service recommendations. This year’s Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial® Brand Awards series, recognize Skype and Regions Bank as the top brands most successful with everyday influencers both online (via social media) and offline (via face-to-face conversations). Whole Foods is the only brand that garners a top-ten rank in both the online and offline influence categories. The awards analyzed more than 500 U.S. consumer brands, Engagement Labs selected winners based on the extent to which this influential audience represented a large proportion of those people who talk about and recommend the brands offline and online.

The awards are based on the Company’s proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the eight most important drivers of brand performance. These are online and offline in sentiment (having more positive than negative conversations), influence, brand sharing (the extent to which people are sharing or talking about a brand’s marketing or advertising), and volume (a measure of how much conversation a brand is getting). The Company’s ranking of the Most Loved Brands was released earlier in February based on net sentiment, and over the next several weeks, Engagement Labs will announce awards for the highest scoring brands in each of the remaining TotalSocial categories. The brands that were most successful with everyday influencers are those with the highest online and offline influence scores in 2018.

“Effective activation of the everyday influencers can drive business success, and brands that gain the attention of consumer influencers tend to see improved short-term sales and long-term brand equity,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs and author of The Influentials: One American in Ten Americans tells the Other 9 How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy. “Everyday influencers are not celebrities and YouTube stars. They are your neighbor or colleague who is knowledgeable about products and eager to share what they know. Success with these influencers is a proven driver of marketing success.”

The Skype brand, built to connect people, is a vital tool for everyday influencers who prize their networks of people whether they live locally or far away. Skype’s users have spoken and Skype recently redesigned based on customer feedback to get back to it’s roots of a simpler design. Furthermore, the online voice-calling service now comes to Amazon’s Alexa devices at home.

For the second year in a row, Regions Bank holds its position as the number-one brand that engages influencers online. The brand is also a consistent top awardee of the Javelin’s Trust in Banking Awards, based serving customer needs and protecting their accounts. Regions Bank continues to win everyday influencers with its #PiggyPoetry and #MakeADifference campaign by providing grants to non-profits supporting veterans.

Similarly, CVS remains the number-two brand with the most influencers among the people talking about the brand online. Its merger with Aetna for $70 billion contributed conversations about the brand. CVS leads more conversations with its Beauty in Real Life campaign by using unaltered images in their advertisements to show how everyday women use beauty in their daily lives.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods has figured out how to connect with both online and offline influencers. More than a year after Amazon acquired Whole Foods, the brand is no longer limited by brick and mortar and are reaching customers wherever they are – whether in-store, through Amazon’s Alexa or Prime. The brand ranked sixth offline and fourth in online influence conversations beating out supermarket brands Trader Joe’s and Publix.

To learn more about Engagement Labs and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com.

Engagement Labs (TSXV: EL) (OTCQB: ELBSF) is an industry-leading data and analytics firm that provides social intelligence for Fortune 500 brands and companies. The Company’s TotalSocial® platform focuses on the entire social ecosystem by combining powerful online (social media) and offline (word of mouth) data with predictive analytics. Engagement Labs has a proprietary ten-year database of unique brand, industry and competitive intelligence, matched with its cutting-edge predictive analytics that use machine learning and artificial intelligence to reveal the social metrics that increase marketing ROI and top line revenue for its diverse group of clients.

TotalSocial® is a premier data and analytics platform that provides brands with unique insights, improved marketing ROI and strategies to grow revenue. Fueled by actionable online and offline data, TotalSocial is the only platform that encompasses and listens to the entire social ecosystem. TotalSocial offers unique, proprietary data about brands, its industry and competitors. With cutting-edge diagnostics, patent-pending predictive analytics and machine learning, TotalSocial identifies business opportunities and provides recommendations and a roadmap to grow revenue and achieve business and marketing goals.

Disclaimer in regard to Forward-looking Statements

Certain statements included herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, Engagement Labs does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect, in particular, new information or future events.

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